This jarlet is an example of the Museum’s remarkable archival, photographic, archaeological, and material culture collections that are a result of the U-M’s long relationship with American colonial rule in the Philippines. Evett D. Hester, who served 27 years in the Foreign Service in Philippines, acquired this and many other objects from the region. During the 1922–1925 U-M Philippine Expedition, Hester’s interactions with the Museum’s first director, Carl Guthe, fueled his interests in archaeological materials. As a result, Hester built a collection of more than 800 ceramic vessels. When Hester returned to the U.S., he offered half of his collection to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. The remaining 410 objects came to the Museum through a combination of sale (of 200) and donation. This Hester vessel is a small Ming dynasty jarlet with red and green enamel overglaze. The cracks evident in the glaze are the result of different heating and cooling rates of the glaze and the underlying clay body during firing.

In honor of the University of Michigan’s 2017 bicentennial, we are celebrating the remarkable archaeological and ethnographic collections and rich legacy of research and teaching at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology by posting one entry a day for 200 days. The entries will highlight objects from the collections, museum personalities, and UMMAA expeditions. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is also posting each day for 200 days on Twitter and Facebook (follow along at #KMA200). After the last post, an exhibition on two centuries of archaeology at U-M opens at the Kelsey. Visit the exhibit—a joint project of the UMMAA and the Kelsey—from October 18, 2017 to May 27, 2018.